Until she entered the ring for her recent title defense against South Korea’s Bo Mi Re Shin, WBC lightweight champion, Caroline Dubois, had managed to turn each of her professional fights into one-sided exhibitions.

Dubois’ speed and skill have been far too much for her opponents to handle but the fight with the determined, aggressive Shin got steadily harder as it went along and the gifted Londoner suddenly found herself in a real fight.

By the time the final bell sounded, Dubois’ had been dragged into a toe-to-toe swing up with the persistent Shin.

Dubois, 11-0-1 (5 KOs), was awarded a close majority decision victory and the experience will serve her well.

The 24 year-old seems certain to face one of her rival champions in the coming months and if she didn’t already know that things are going to get even tougher from this point on, she certainly does now.

“I'll be honest, Obviously as a world champion everything is going to get harder,” Dubois told TalkSport.

“The competition is going to become tougher. The fights are suddenly going to edge away from being 60-40 to 50-50 fights.

“I’ll be involved in some big fights in my next few fights hopefully. I want to challenge Terri Harper next and then go for undisputed against Beatriz Ferreria the Olympic silver medalist so the challenges are suddenly but quickly getting harder.”

Each of the fighters in the 135lb division bring something different to the table.

Dubois is a fast, exciting mixture of skill, speed and power.

Experienced WBO champion, Harper, 15-2-2 (6 KOs), is a smart fighter who looked revitalized during her decision victory over Rhiannon Dixon last September whilst Brazil’s IBF title holder, Ferreira, 6-0 (2 KOs), is an aggressive ball of energy who more than lives up to her ‘Beast’ nickname. Undefeated Texan, Stephanie Han, 10-0 (3 KOs), won the vacant WBA belt with a first round knockout last month.

Harper and Dubois have been involved in an ongoing public back and forth for some time.

On May 23rd, three- weight world champion, Harper, defends her title against undefeated German contender, Natalie Zimmermann, 13-0 (3 KOs), and provided she comes through unscathed, Dubois would like to quickly enter serious negotiations for an all-British unification clash.

“We don’t have a date,” Dubois said. “She’s fighting in Doncaster I think May time so we’ll see how that fight goes. Hopefully she’s able to come out without cuts or any injuries and we can get it going straight away in the summer. The end of summer, that would be great.”